Graphic Evidence

Rocks and the natural landscape of Australia are great assets that our country has, however attempting to capture that essence is a more difficult process which i feel was not achieved in this image. But when this style is done well it really draws you into the outback and nature itself!

Succulents poorly placed and overused...what more is there to say.

Well as you can see these people let their garden get out of hand and perhaps made the wrong decision from the begining. if they had chosen some plants that might have matured into different shapes and sizes the gardens would not look so over crowded or over powered by their plant selection.

Money = Taste

A very common misconception is that money equals good taste. Well I'm here to say that it most definitely does not. Living in a large growth corridor like i do i see many people build houses from the ground up only to ruin them with poorly planned gardens and concepts that are better left in their head.
What am i talking about i can hear you thinking...well its few different plagues sweeping the district for example; 'the more succulents we have the nicer our garden', 'surly if we scatter ugly rocks around it will look natural', and my favourite is 'that plant wont grow any bigger than it is when we bought it from the nursery'.
Let me clarify again even more clearly. When you see a jungle in front of a nice house you can conclude that the owners didn't take into consideration to overall habit of the mature plants which then leaves them with a mess of leaves and shrubs in front of a nice house. Typically the rock scattering it just ugly always because people just decide that rocks on top of the ground with suppress weeds only to find that instead it kills the plants you want and then weeds are the only things that grow. Finally and most vexing to me are the succulent outcrops in the front yard...seriously i cannot even begin to understand why anyone would think a random Hodge Podge of succulent can 'lift' the facade of any house because it doesn't.

a little thought and preparation goes a long way when starting a garden from scratch but i have come to the conclusion that a good portion of people couldn't care less about their gardens and even if they did they would be too lazy to do anything about it.

image examples of these eye sores will be up tomorrow.

Long Live the Trees

These devastating images are not some plucked from obscurity but rather three images from literally a 10m radius from my house. They all used to be happy healthy trees until 'They' came around and killed them. Three eucalyptus now dead...

Well one can surmise that its only a matter of time and money before these trees are ripped out of the ground and replaced. But what could have been done to prevent this in the first place? Easy, the council could have employed a more highly skilled labourer to perform the simple but important task of pruning. I'm not here to judge and point fingers at people but the council dropped the ball on this one and went for the easy cheap option.

So next time when it comes time to prune once more id like the council to think about the consequences of their laziness and lack or research techniques and just do it right. Employ the guy/girl with a good record of KEEPING TREES ALIVE and past employer references and discard anyone who has 'i like the smell of petrol' as a reason for employment on their resume'.

Happy pruning.

Council - Savior or Slayer

As we all know the local council in your area try and control many if not all the proceedings and developments in your area. In some cases this is good as it stops that strange new couple building a monster 4 story house in a suburban middle class street. However they also prevent local kids build bicycle jumps and demolish ALL potentially unsafe obstacles and hazards. Worse still is how they manage to get into the ears of everyday people and transform them into their own personal informants to dob in any and all indiscretions!

Well as juicy as many of these topics would be I’m just here to talk about the councils 'Quick-Fix' attitude when it comes to dealing with local streetscapes, parks, new developments and public open spaces (i.e. skate parks, BBQ areas, sports ovals...).

So as a beautiful example of a council’s inability to look at the bigger picture and just see the quick buck at the end of the tunnel I present the front of my house and street. My entire street has a variety of Eucalyptus trees planted along the road verge. About 6 months ago the council came around and lopped of all the low lying branches to keep the public safe. This is all fine in theory however when at 7am I’m woken up by the murder of all the trees outside it becomes not fine. The council had come through and in a wave of destruction cut through the low lying branches so close the trunk of the trees that it could not heal itself. Instead it bled to death over man months due to the deep 'V' shaped cuts in all the trunks that penetrated past all levels of the cambium layer. In the end it was all too much and the trees have all died now leaving us to replace them.

I ask is that the council doing their part to keep the community safe? Or are they simply too lazy to hire a qualified arborist to do the job correctly? The answer to that question is both simple and obvious but seems to evade the eyes of the council. Unprofessional practices such as this go on all the time and I imagen not only to one street in one suburb.

Savior or Slayer...well I say slayers with the 'Quick-Fix' in mind and a fast buck to get us complaining citizens off their back and the prevent law suit.

Well that's my opinion.

Next post will have pictures and discuss what can be done to prevent such atrocities.

Drafting Up The Plan

For those who will be following this blog (not many of you) you will be happy to know that this post will be an outline of what is to come. There will be nothing too fancy as I am technically challenged but just a brief overview.

If you didn't already know I live in the South Eastern district of Melbourne Victoria in the Casey Cardinia area. This is said to be the largest growth corridor in all of Melbourne, which would lead one to expect a large level of gardening design, horticulture expertise and streetscape knowledge. However all that has to be done is to take a simple drive down Bryn Mawr Bld to see that in some cases the ball as been dropped in the biggest way. This is just one of the topics I will be discussing as well as looking at local residents gardens. This is an interesting one as most of the Casey Cardinia area is newly developed which means that many of the gardens have been designed, or not, by owners and residents from scratch with varying degrees of success. For me this is the most interesting out of all the topics as it is very clear when walking around, those who have thought about their garden and those who have not. Possibly one of the most controversial topics around is that of the local Council and if they can be considered as saviours of the community or quick fix imitations of what might have been a good idea.

So now you know what will be coming in the near future, don't enjoy tis too much.